A couple weeks ago, I posted about another crazy project that I had began. Well, after a whole lot of work, it is finally finished. It actually still needs some tweaking; I am not very happy with the feeders I built inside, but it is in the field and working well. The enclosure is 13' long, 6' wide, & 5.5' tall in the middle (I couldn't make it any higher, because it had to fit out through my garage door.) I originally planned on have 3 roosting bars on each side, but realized I had room 4. As you can see I used 9 5-gallon buckets as nesting boxes in at the rear of the trailer. I wasn't sure how the chickens would like them, but in the beginning they jumped right in and have been depositing their eggs regularly. I figure my egg-mobile can comfortably fit 220 chickens, though I don't plan on putting any more than 50 right now; it will also house some turkeys and meat chickens.
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Nicely Done! How does it work? Feed bins open during the day and then closed at night? Do you close the chickens in at night?
ReplyDeleteNice tool tote!
Is that a chicken hood ornament on the tractor?
Overall it is working great. The feed bins are open 24/7 on the inside; the exterior doors are simply so we can fill them without having to go into the shelter. I do need to rip them out and re-build them because, even after several modifications, they are just not functioning as well as I like; to much feed sits in the bottom tray and the birds cause too much of it to spill out and get wasted.
ReplyDeleteThe "man" door stays open 24/7, but I intend to make a "bird" door at some point. They are still surrounded by the electrified mesh netting so they are fairly safe either way.